The Jump – Breaking down the trade deadline

By Adam Green | February 18, 2010 at 11:25 pmUPDATED: January 14, 2011 at 4:27 pm

An interesting day for NBA fans, no moves that shifted the power for a championship contender, but lots of moves that are going to increase the suspense of the summer of 2010.

Before I examine the trades that happened today and a couple that went down earlier this week we have to take a look at Amar’e Stoudemire staying with the Phoenix Suns.

Everything that happened to Amar’e Stoudemire leading up to the 2009 NBA Draft through Thursday’s deadline has to be an ego check for Stat. The man who considers himself to be one of the best players in the NBA has received numerous kicks to the groin area.

Groin Shot #1 and #2 These two go together. The Phoenix Suns were willing to take a deal based around J.J. Hickson for Stoudemire and the Cleveland Cavaliers were not willing to give up Hickson. At this point Amar’e is keeled over with a loss of breath. If you are considered a top player in the league by executives your name and J.J. Hickson never even come into the same conversation. Do you think Chris Bosh, who Amar’e has said he is better than, would ever be in a trade centered around Hickson? I think not.

Groin Shot #3 The Miami Heat were not willing to part with Michael Beasley. Beasley is talented, but the kid was dumb enough to post a picture of weed on his twitter account, got busted for smoking weed at the rookie symposium, and entered a drug rehab program this summer. Stoudemire is now down on one knee.

Groin Shot #4 For the past 3 weeks Amar’e has been the best player on the Suns. He is putting up double doubles on a nightly basis, yet the Suns didn’t want to keep him and not one team in the entire NBA wanted to give up anything more than a draft pick and expiring contracts. The Suns couldn’t find one team willing to give a legitimate asset in return for Stoudemire. Stat is now on the ground, keeled over, screaming like when you get hit square you know where. All guys know the pain I am talking about.

Now on to the trades that did happen:

Trade #1

Dallas gets Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and Deshawn Stevenson

Wizards get Josh Howard, Quinton Ross and James Singelton

Poor Washington Wizards fans, the only positive out of anything the Wizards did was opening up playing time for power forward/center Andray Blatche. I set the over/under on Wizards wins the rest of the season at three- I take the under.

For the Dallas Mavericks they added another big body in Brendan Haywood to prepare for possible playoff battles with San Antonio, Denver and the Lakers. Haywood is easily playing the best basketball of his career.

Caron Butler gives them another long, athletic wingman to defend one of the many great scorers in the Western Conference. We saw this have an effect in their first game after the All Star break, the Mavs lost to the Thunder, but Caron Butler helped hold Kevin Durant to 9-28 from the field.

A Mavericks-Lakers or Mavericks-Nuggets second round match up is going to be intriguing.

Trade #2

Portland gets Marcus Camby

Clippers get Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw

I thought the Clippers said that the rumors that Isiah Thomas was taking over as president and general manager were false? Oh yea, that’s right, Mike Dunleavy is just as incompetent.

All three contracts are expiring so it has no effect on anything in the future. Camby is the perfect stop gap for the Blazers. They desperately needed a big man to have any chance at competing in this year’s playoffs and they can let him walk after the season when Greg Oden and Joel Pryzibilla return from injury.

I really do not get this trade for the Clippers. There had to be a team out there that was willing to give up more for one of the premier defenders and rebounders in the NBA.

Trade #3

Cavs get Antwan Jamison and Sebastian Telfair

Clippers get Drew Gooden

Wizards get Al Thornton, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a foreigner I have never heard of who was drafted seven years ago and will never play in a NBA game, and the Cavs’ 2010 first round pick.

The Wizards and Clippers got cap space and the Cleveland Cavaliers became the favorites to win the 2010 NBA Championship. Antwan Jamison is a perfect fit to play with Shaq and LeBron James. He can spot up on the outside, which means he won’t clog up the middle, and for some reason if James gets into foul trouble in a playoff game (like the NBA would ever let that happen haha) the Cavs can run the offense through him. He is a much better fit for the Cavs in the present than Amare Stoudemire would have been.

This trade was beyond confusing and I am going to keep it simple. The Knicks got more cap space for the summer of 2010 (Wooohooo!!!!!!!!!!!) and what equates to a 29 game tryout for Tracy McGrady to see if he is worth re-signing. If Mike D’Antoni has half a brain this will also signal the end of the Chris Duhon era.

Houston got itself a #1 scoring option in Kevin Martin. It was pretty clear that Trevor Ariza is not and never will be fit to be the best perimeter player on a good team. Ariza is a complimentary player. The Rockets are praying the Knicks don’t get any big time free agents. The Knicks 2011 first round pick is only #1 overall protected and the 2012 is only top five protected. If the Knicks aren’t good the Rockets hit jackpot. Jordan Hill has some potential, but he is challenged athletically for a big man, he plays below the rim.

After a good off-season this does trade doesn’t make much sense for the Kings. I can see them considering it addition by subtraction. Sacramento played its best basketball of the season when Kevin Martin was out and Beno Udrih and Omri Casspi were major components of the offense. Carl Landry is similar to Jason Thompson, so I don’t see how getting Landry makes them that much better.

There were some other trades that just aren’t worth getting into. The Bulls cleared up some more cap space by getting four expiring contracts. The Bobcats traded for Tyrus Thomas, setting up the possibility for a reversal of the P.J. Carlisimo-Latrell Spreewell incident. I give it two weeks before Larry Brown attempts to strangle Thomas.